Tag Archives: Pork

I have a new book out. It’s titled Pigs, Pork, and Heartland Hogs: From Wild Boar to Baconfest, and it covers the history of the 12,000-year association of pigs and humans. Early reviews are saying very nice things about it, such as “engaging,” “illuminating,” and “refreshingly thorough and fair.” I’d probably add, “tasty”–because these quirky animals are, and have been for a long time, the most common meat in most of the world.

Like my previous book, Midwest Maize, this book takes from through history up to the present day, offering insights into both how pigs are raised and how they wind up on our plates, as well as looking at some of the problems associated with raising pigs. Also like Midwest Maize, there are recipes–tasty ones that are iconic in the region that raises more pigs than anywhere else: the American Midwest.

So if you like food history and are interested in pigs, you’re in luck. For the next year, the publisher (Rowman & Littlefield) is offering “Friends and Family” a substantial discount off the cover price. More substantial, in fact, than the author’s discount. And since I consider anyone who visits this blog to be a friend, I’m offering the discount to you.

Order directly through Rowman & Littlefield at https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538110744 for a 30% discount on Pigs, Pork, and Heartland Hogs. Use promotion code RLFANDF30 at checkout for 30% off – this promotion is valid until December 31, 2019. This offer cannot be combined with any other promo or discount offers.

What better recipe to follow a post on pig history than one that uses pork—this one from the Philippines.

The Philippines were once part of the great trading empire that Spain established after the discovery of the New World. It is the Spanish legacy that makes the islands of the Philippines something of an anomaly in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, the cuisine and culture both were influenced as much by Spain as by India, Malaysia, and China. Hence, in Manila, you can get egg rolls with your arroz con pollo.

The national dish of the Philippines is a “stew” called adobo. Originally made with pork alone, it is now increasingly made with pork and chicken, or even with chicken alone. Adobos are Spanish in origin, and, though they have largely disappeared in Spain, they can still be found in Spain’s former colonies, altered in each to suit local tastes and available produce. Whatever the regional differences, the elements that all adobos have in common are garlic, salt, and something acidic. Continue reading →

If you said “Wall Street” and “pigs” in the same sentence, people might think you were talking about greed and dirty dealing, or perhaps they would assume it was a socialist comment about capitalism. However, Wall Street has an older association with pigs than these metaphorical ones. In the 1600s, semi-wild pigs were wreaking such havoc in the grain fields and gardens of colonial New Yorkers that a long wall was built on the northern edge of the colony on Manhattan Island, to control the roaming herds. The road that ran along the inside of the wall became, of course, Wall Street. But this search for solutions to the “we want pigs, we don’t want pigs” conflict has gone on for a long time.

All domestic pigs are descended from the wild boar, Sus scrofa, and in fact, the domesticated pig is simply called Sus scrofa domesticus. Various subspecies of the wild boar ranged across an area that extended from the British Isles to Morocco in the West and Japan and New Guinea in the East. (There are more species of boar or wild hog than just Sus scrofa, but they are not ancestors of today’s domestic pig.) There is debate as to precisely where the first domestication occurred, but it is possible that pigs were actually domesticated in multiple locations at different times. The Chinese state that intensive pig production occurred there as early as 4300 BC. However, the largest amount of archaeological evidence places the first domestication in the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean at about 8000–5000 BC. Continue reading →

Recent Posts

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 160 other followers

Buy The Book

Of course, in addition to visiting my Midwest Maize blog, I'm hoping you'll consider buying the book. If you love history, trivia, and surprises, it should make you happy.
Midwest Maize: How Corn Shaped the U.S. Heartland. I hope you'll consider buying it.